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Florida Officer Approaches Accident Scene, Sees Two Dead Alligators Hanging from Vehicle

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officer was called to the scene of an otherwise normal car accident. To their surprise, two alligators were hanging from the window of an SUV on the scene. One of the alligators was 6 1/2 feet long and the other was 8-feet long. The officer pulled the gators out of the vehicle and taped their mouths shut with electrical tape as a precaution. Unfortunately, both gators were already dead so the tape was not needed.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission called the accident “bizarre,” per Yahoo. Bizarre, indeed. Imagine being called to a car accident, only to see alligators hanging out of the car like they just took it for a spin. Sadly, their deaths were not car-related, but fishing-related. The gators had been caught during a fishing trip.

One of the drivers said that he had killed the gators earlier that day during the fishing trip. He had the alligators stored in his SUV at the time of the accident. On Facebook, the Fish and Wildlife Commission detailed the accident, and ended the report with an update on the two individuals involved in the crash. “After interviewing the individuals, one of them finally admitted to killing the alligators while fishing, and then both suspects loaded the gators into the SUV for transport. Both alligators expired and both individuals were charged accordingly.”

There’s talk of updating the hours in which gators can be hunted and killed in Florida. Currently, Florida law only allows gator hunting during nighttime hours. Alligators are more active at night anyways, but the restrictive hours make it hard for some people to hunt.

If hunting hours get changed to 24/7 then more people will be able to hunt. If more people are hunting the gators, that will positively impact population control. There are currently 1.3 million alligators in Florida. While some hunters are very pro-24/7 hunting, others are not. Some think that hunting alligators 24/7 will lead to spoilage.

Regardless of if 24/7 gator hunting is a good thing or not, everyone can agree that they’ve become a menace to Florida residents. They find their ways into homes, garages, pools, cars, and FWC bite statistics. It seems that gator attacks are increasing, but their stats are relatively low.

Over a span of 70 years, there’s been a little over 400 gator bites. Of those bites, or attacks, only 25 have been fatal. If you’re concerned about the likihood of being attacked by an alligator, don’t be. Stay aware of your surroundings, especially in and around bodies of water. There’s only about a 1 in 3 million chance that you’ll have a fatal run-in with Florida’s sneaky, scaly citzens.